


A Brief Inconvenience

by StaticLantern



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-04
Updated: 2014-08-04
Packaged: 2018-02-11 19:46:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2080842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StaticLantern/pseuds/StaticLantern
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His vision still blurred and tunneled, he still did things without thinking, following orders. He was used to that, but not to this degree. He didn’t like not having control over himself, over the way he did things. He lacked grace now. Fighting against the sceptre’s power was hard at first, but it got easier. He always felt inclined to follow Loki’s orders, but at least he could decide how he wanted to go about fulfilling them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Brief Inconvenience

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StartingWithTheRidingCrop](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StartingWithTheRidingCrop/gifts).



> Follow me on Tumblr!
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At first, everything seemed clouded. His vision was blurry, tunneled, sometimes he couldn’t see at all. His body moved without him really considering where he was going or why. Sometimes he seemed to black out entirely. It wasn’t until a day or two after they’d reached his old haunt that he started to gain a bit of control again.  
He could remember waking up the second morning, huddled in a corner, arms folded over his chest, his head leaning against the cold wall. His eyes slid open and scanned his surroundings, trying to recall where he was. Then his eyes locked with someone else’s. The owner paused for a moment before walking towards him, reaching down and curling his fingers around Clint’s arm and dragging him to his feet.  
“You’ve slept long enough, get back to work.”  
That was usually his way of telling Clint, without really saying it, that he was exhausted and in pain and needed to close himself away from his workers for a while.

His vision still blurred and tunneled, he still did things without thinking, following orders. He was used to that, but not to this degree. He didn’t like not having control over himself, over the way he did things. He lacked grace now. Fighting against the sceptre’s power was hard at first, but it got easier. He always felt inclined to follow Loki’s orders, but at least he could decide how he wanted to go about fulfilling them.  
Loki picked up on this quickly. Even in his weakened state, he could tell his top soldier was acting differently. He lingered places he shouldn’t, took an extra second before following orders, and he watched Loki a lot. It seemed any time Loki turned his gaze to the archer, Barton’s eyes were already on him.  
Romantic feelings were always such a pain. Loki found them cumbersome, irritating, overall incredibly useless. He’d taken to avoiding them at all cost, quickly cutting people out of his life that he felt he was growing too close to. He’d mastered the art of pushing people away so he could focus on more important things. Unfortunately, romantic feelings were something he experienced at an unpleasant frequency, so he could pinpoint the exact moment he was beginning to feel close to someone.

He’d considered killing Barton. It wouldn’t have been difficult. He was becoming a nuisance as it was, seeing as he was growing resilient against the sceptre’s power. He’d found himself pressing the tip of the metal against Clint’s chest two more times since arriving, but he loosened quicker each time. It would have been more than logical to press just a touch harder next time, but for some reason he couldn’t seem to care enough to do so.

Clint never considered himself a romantic type. Or a relationship of any sort type. He was close to Natasha and he socialized with a few people from work, but overall he preferred to keep to himself, stay locked in his apartment, reading, watching movies, generally just avoiding other people. He did notice how he was taking to Loki though, he wasn’t stupid. He assumed it was the same sort of admiration though that he had for Natasha.  
Loki and Natasha were similar, it wasn’t shocking to Clint that he… appreciated being around him. They were both frighteningly intelligent, lethal, commanding. They were stubborn in their ways, they both had a sort of no nonsense personality. He imagined they would hate spending more than a minute with each other. When SHIELD apprehended Loki, and they would, the interrogation section could potentially be very entertaining to watch, the two both attempting to manipulate the other and growing more and more irritated by each other. They were two sides of the same coin.

Nearly a week had passed now. Selvig’s work was slower than Loki would like, but it was impressive nonetheless. It was looking like it would be done within the next couple of days, if not sooner. With the impending deadline coming to a close, Loki had spent increasingly less attention on Clint and had all but stopped trying to relock the spell on his mind. The archer had taken advantage of this, using his new-found control over himself to keep completely off everyone’s radar. He was back to watching everything from the ceiling braces and thin catwalks.

As much as he focused his attention on the work at hand, Loki was still painfully aware of Clint’s gaze on him. Selvig was in the middle of yet another ramble about the specific piece he was on, his voice like nails on a chalkboard to Loki. If the man didn’t pose such usefulness to him, he would have severed his spine the second he met him.  
Usually when Erik spoke, Loki listened for about two seconds to decide whether it was useful information or not before letting his mind wander. He leaned against the table, weariness taking hold of him. He wasn’t as weak or exhausted as when he’d first arrived, but it still took a toll on him. As much as he hated how often he had to retire to his bed, he knew it was necessary to not utterly fail when it came to the final battle.  
“...really all we need now is to connect these two chambers here, complete that coil- the one sitting by the broken furnace- and I believe there’s some materials we still need for the…” Selvig’s voice still droned on. Loki’s eyes followed where the scientist pointed, lazily looking at the expanse of metal strewn across the tables. When he tuned Selvig out again, his gaze moved upward, resting on the man crouched in the braces of the ceiling like a bird perched among tree branches.  
Their eyes locked for a moment, each of them their own thoughts filling about the other. Loki, trying to decide whether Barton’s usefulness outweighed the irritant he’d become simply by existing in Loki’s presence. Clint, trying to puzzle out why he’d even decided to stay since he’d completely shaken the spell at least two days ago.  
“Finish your work here, I have other matters to attend to.” Loki said suddenly, interrupting whatever tangent Selvig had moved on to.

Loki retired to his room again, which really was just a spare room with a cot and a desk. He assumed it may have been where Barton slept when he alone had owned the building. He’d told him on the way here that it was where he and his brother trained and lived together for a few years before they separated.  
He shucked the heavy layers of leather and gold from his body, letting them fall to the floor in a shameful pile. Kicking his shoes off, he relaxed against the mattress, now dawning simple black pants and a green, long-sleeved tunic. He looked considerably smaller than before, no longer clad in heavy armour meant to glorify his appearance. Without the broad pieces tied to his body, it was apparent how skinny he’d grown. Alone in the room now, he mostly looked weary and underfed.  
Clint had entered the room not long after Loki had, surprised when the man didn’t rouse. He was trained to be unnaturally silent when he moved, but even so Loki always seemed to know exactly where he was at all times. Now, he crouched beside the bed, reaching a hand out to press against Loki’s forehead.  
He froze when Loki grabbed his wrist, his eyes sliding open shortly after and focusing on Clint.  
“Do you think me a fool, Agent Barton?” Loki asked simply.  
“Not all the time.” Clint replied casually.  
“I am well aware that your actions are not dictated by my will anymore.” Loki began, sitting up and releasing Clint’s hand. “Now I don’t particularly care how you broke the spell, it’s of no importance to me right now. What I do find myself very interested in knowing is why, despite being in full control of yourself again, you’ve chosen to stay here and continue following my commands.”  
Clint shrugged.  
“If you think that’s a sufficient response, Barton, I’m going to have to find a very creative way to hurt you.” Loki growled, his dark gaze searching Clint’s face for… he wasn’t sure what. Clint always looked very unimpressed by everything, it was difficult to figure out what he was thinking.  
“It’s not a great response, but it’s the only one I’ve got right now.” Clint replied.  
Loki let out an exasperated sigh, running his hand through his hair. Clint sat more relaxed on the floor, still staring up at Loki.  
“Just-.... go, before I decide killing you is more fun than it sounds.” Loki replied, laying back against the bed again.  
“And if I don’t want to go?” Clint asked. “I’m a lot harder to kill when I can actually see anyways.”  
“You don’t intimidate me Barton.” Loki replied, draping an arm over his eyes.  
“You don’t exactly intimidate me either.”

Clint leaned forward, pushing himself onto the bed and laying beside Loki, propped up on one elbow and staring down at him. Loki lifted his arm a little to look at Clint, his gaze studying the man’s expression, trying to figure out why he stayed. All that came to his mind though was how relaxed Clint looked and how close he was laying next to him.  
Loki was stronger than Clint. He knew he could take advantage of the archer if he so wished, and he would be lying if he said it wasn’t a temptation right now. He reached his hand out, running the back of his fingers over Clint’s face, testing the waters so to speak. The man didn’t react, only continued to stare at him. 

Clint wasn’t sure what he was expecting from the touch. He wasn’t sure what he was expecting about Loki at all. In all honesty, he was really going with the flow, seeing what Loki would do, seeing how it made him feel. He guessed he was expecting to feel disgusted at the advance. He’d never considered himself attracted to men, or anyone really, aside from Natasha and Bobbi, but he’d never felt a desire to pursue anything with them. Just let the pieces fall where they may.  
Loki furrowed his brow at Clint, still drawing his hand over Clint’ face. He looked up briefly, letting out what Clint could only assume was a swear, because it was in a language he didn’t quite catch. Loki rolled over to face the other man, quickly sliding his arm under his head and reeling him in, pressing their mouths together roughly.  
Clint’s eyes widened a little at Loki’s sudden, swift movements, not sure how to react. He didn’t move away from Loki, but he didn’t exactly participate either. Loki was usually very reserved, guarded, very focused on the end goal. He’d shown the opposite of interest in anything that didn’t directly affect the plan, just getting him to eat and rest and let the workers do their jobs was difficult. This would have been right out of the question.  
Now though, Loki had him in a headlock, forcing their faces together. His free hand gripped bruisingly at Clint’s hip, holding them against each other. Clint was starting to relax into it, as unusual and perplexing as the situation was to him, it wasn’t exactly unpleasant.  
Loki seemed to sense Clint relaxing and slowed his movements. His eyes opened and he pulled away from Clint. He paused for a moment, their eyes locked, before pulling away from him gruffly, sitting up and away from Clint.  
“Not the usual reaction I get.” Clint replied, not making any attempts to move.  
“Get out.”  
“That one’s not too uncommon actually.”  
“Out!”  
Clint sat up, pulling himself off the bed. He lingered by Loki, searching what little of his face he could see. He mostly just looked angry, not with Clint, but with himself. He leaned his hand out and pressed the back of his fingers to Loki’s face briefly before exiting the room.  
Loki stayed where he was, hunched over himself on the bed. His gaze stayed on the floor. How completely disgusting. He couldn’t manage to keep his emotions in check. He felt weak and pathetic. It wasn’t like he’d not been put in similar positions before. It wasn’t like he hadn’t callously shattered the hearts of people he’d loved so he could continue to avoid romantic matters.  
This was no different. He was simply weak and tired and ragged. He wasn’t his normal self. He was under an enormous amount of stress, physical and mental. It was perfectly understandable that his emotions were running a little rampant. That’s all it was, and when the plan went through, when he took his rightful place on the throne, he’d be able to look Clint in the eyes and run the end of his sceptre through his throat.

**Author's Note:**

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> 
> Http://birdwithakeyboard.tumblr.com/


End file.
